Communications About Legal Services · 4-10% of the exam
21.2.3Fields of practice and specialization (Rule 7.2)
On this page
- Rule 7.2 — Fields of Practice and Specialization
Communicating a field of practice is freely permitted. One word changes the analysis: "certified." Using that word, or implying it, triggers a two-part requirement that experience alone can't satisfy.
Why
Telling people what work a lawyer does helps them find the right one. A word suggesting that some outside body has vouched for the lawyer does something different: it borrows credibility the reader has no way to check. With no standard behind it, that word would mean whatever the advertiser wanted it to mean.
Plain English
You may say you practice immigration law, concentrate on criminal defense, or limit your practice to family matters without any certifying body, provided your experience, training, or education supports the claim and the claim is not otherwise misleading. Using "certified" — or implying certification, whether by seal, badge, or phrase — requires actual certification from an approved organization and requires naming that organization in the communication.
Rule
Rule 7.2 — Fields of Practice and Specialization
A lawyer may freely communicate that they practice, or do not practice, in particular fields of law, subject to Rule 7.1's non-misleading standard.
- Special designations without certification
- Lawyers admitted before the USPTO may use "Patent Attorney" or similar designations;
- Admiralty lawyers may use "Admiralty," "Proctor in Admiralty," or similar designations.
A lawyer shall NOT state or imply certification as a specialist unless BOTH conditions are met:
- The lawyer has actually been certified by an organization approved by an appropriate state/territorial authority or the ABA; AND
- The name of the certifying organization is clearly identified in the communication.
The verb in (c) is state or imply, so the two conditions are not escaped by wording alone: a communication that implies certification without claiming it in terms is inside (c) just as an express claim is. Words that only describe a field of practice imply no certification and name no certifying organization, so they stay outside (c).
Example 1
Ex. 1
Tom has devoted twenty years exclusively to family law. His website reads: "Board-certified specialist in family law. Twenty years of experience." Tom has never received formal certification from any organization.
Circle the one word on Tom's website that does the damage. The website violates both Rule 7.1 and Rule 7.2. Two decades of exclusive practice don't substitute for formal certification by an approved organization or the ABA. "Board-certified specialist" is an express claim Tom doesn't hold, materially false and misleading, and it violates the specialist-communication rule independently. Replacing it with "concentrates in family law" or "twenty years of family-law experience" cures both violations.
The tested word is "certified." Comment [9] generally permits a lawyer to say she "concentrates in," is a "specialist," practices a "specialty," or "specializes in" particular fields based on the lawyer's experience, specialized training or education — and every such communication remains subject to Rule 7.1's false-and-misleading standard, so dropping the word "certified" does not save a claim with no basis behind it. Language such as "specializes in," "focuses on," "concentrates on," or "limits practice to" does not by itself trigger the certification requirement and needs no certifying body.
Questions · 1
Q 01ch21-e07
Question 1 of 1 · Rule 7.2(c)
Attorney has spent fourteen years handling special-education disputes for parents and no other kind of work. The practice website carries a page headed with the words board certified special education specialist, set beside a gold seal that Attorney's web designer drew. No organization has ever certified Attorney in anything. The state high court approves several bodies that certify lawyers in particular fields, and one of them certifies in education law, but Attorney has never applied to it. The rest of the page accurately describes the fourteen years of experience and lists the school districts where Attorney appears. A parent who read the page later said the seal was what made her telephone. Is Attorney subject to discipline?
Keys 1 to 4 choose.